by Jamie Magee
A tinge of relief struck Talon when not one mention of what Reveca went through was in Judge’s run down.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Judge asked.
Talon met his eyes in a beat. He was sure he had blocked Judge, and himself for that matter, from seeing the gory details of what happened to Reveca. Judge’s stare was locked on his bloodstained hands.
“What did you see?” Talon asked.
The fog was thick, it was dark as hell, but he had counted on Judge seeing something from Saige’s side, counted on him helping Talon put the event into words the others would understand when Talon was able to look them all in the eye.
“What should I have seen?” Judge asked questioning himself as much as Talon.
“Answer me,” Talon pushed.
“I tracked Akan, I sensed Saige, fought him...Jamison did, then I tracked Akan when he ran until he disappeared, the fucker prob shifted into a tree or some shit.”
Talon nodded easily as a breath of relief ghosted across his lips.
“She alright?”
Again, Talon was caught off guard. Judge nodded toward the cabin, “Saige,” Judge said.
“I don’t know.”
“He hurt her?” Judge pushed.
“Akan? In his own way.”
Judge dropped his chin and flipped his eyes up to meet Talon. “Did Reveca hurt her?”
If given the chance she would, Talon thought to himself.
“I’ll worry about them. We need to get our people right. The dead didn’t leave?”
Judge swayed his head. “They are not as tangible now, kinda look like the fog at first glance.”
“What did Talley say about it all?”
“The short of it, when he was making rounds in the city he could not kick the gut feeling someone was pulling from him, so he tracked the vibe and ended up in that bar. Akan wasn’t there, but shits we knew to run in the crew Blackwater had set up on the streets were. A captain from the Devils Den was too. Tally broke whatever spell shit they had going on then sat down. When Finley beat us all there, and she saw the spell, she told him not to leave. The magic was in action. The dead were rising. They’d all flock to him and become tangible if he left the zone he was in.”
“Zone?”
“Same crossroad shit Saige told you about. But Talley wasn’t taking chances, staying where he was became a safe bet.”
“He should’ve reached out sooner,” Talon growled.
“It all happened at the same time. Dead showed up, Rush figured out Talley was Mia, all the while Talley and Finley were figuring out they were sitting on a time bomb.”
“Did Finley say how to get rid of the dead?”
“Over her head boss, we got Temple on it.”
“What’s his take,” in a real way Talon thought Temple might be slow to do anything that would hinder the risen dead, especially if his parents had recently risen. Talon was crossing every finger and toe he had hoping that transfer of power was a different hell and nothing that happened tonight would jack with those who were here and established when this hell began.
“Stay put were the first words out of his mouth, he’s still jiving with Jamison about it all, but last I heard the dead would leave when their task was complete.”
It is, Talon nearly said. Wait...
“What does Temple think they are here to do?”
It was a sketchy question, no doubt, but how else could Talon dance around this?
“Vengeance,” Judge said easily. He glanced around where he and Talon were standing, “It might be best for you to be in here. I’ve seen some less than friendly faces among the dead.”
Talon hadn’t. He had seen good men that only wanted to die with honor. He would’ve been just as enraged as them if the transition hadn’t agreed with him. Vengeance was within their right, no matter if it was or wasn’t, Talon wasn’t right with giving it to them. The blows had come to fast, far too fast for Reveca to even understand who was delivering her demise.
“They want a piece of me?” Talon asked blankly. It was a good theory. He was the one who had catered to the gray witch.
“Can’t say for sure, boss. With you in here, Reveca and Thrash MIA, not many of us can name the dead about. I mean, we’ve heard the stories, can put two and two together, but I can’t tell you this ass out here is prob mad because you did this.”
“Any word on Thrash?”
“Yeah, one. Thrash.”
“What?” Talon said it like a curse. He didn’t have time for riddles.
“I got nothin’ right before that dude found me and brought me here to you, Jamison and Temple both looked up at once like the were waiting for the sky to fall, then they looked at each other and said his name. That’s all I got. I can bet he’s kicking up a stink where he is, though. Might help us out when this shit finally ends, but I don’t want to count on it.”
Talon stared into nothing for long moments thinking over his next course. If Judge’s theory was right and the dead wanted a piece of him he was ready to face them. Fuck hiding. It wasn’t clicking all the way with him, though; they could’ve taken him out at the same time they took Reveca out.
He wasn’t a fan of how everyone seemed to be in the dark and in the know at the same time.
“Look,” Talon said finally. “Somethin’ ain’t right. I want a piece of King, find him and figure out where the fuck he’s been. Keep the dead here. Everyone needs to have their guard up, Akan could pose as anyone, could be anywhere. If something sounds fucked up, take it as so.” His expression hardened. “If you do find Akan, keep eyes on him, but don’t approach.”
“What do you know, boss?” Judge asked.
Too much shit was the simple answer. This Throng business in him was thrashing around in his chest telling him that Akan was not someone that could be underestimated, not if he had the power of an entire Throng inside of him. All his years snug against a witch had him doubting everything.
“I know we dropped the ball with that fuck too many times. If you can’t get to me, but need to attack, I want you to run your plan by Jamison and Temple.”
“You puttin’ them in charge?” it was impossible for Judge to hide the insult he was feeling.
Talon swayed his head. “Consultant, Akan is a beast that has made a fool of us one too many times. I won’t give him the pleasure of alluding us again.”
“Right, then.”
Judge turned to leave.
“Judge,” Talon said. “I mean it. King’s men are perched somewhere close by. You get answers from them.”
Judge gave a shallow nod, took a slow glance over the blood dried on Talon then bowed his head as he moved through the barrier to leave.
Talon dropped his gaze to his hands. He’d been waiting for the evidence to vanish, hoping the illusion would waver and all at once what was wrong in his life would be right once more. He couldn’t take it anymore.
He’d charged all the way to the front steps before he stopped short. Skylynn and her twin cousins were leaving through the front door. Far too fucking soon as far as Talon was concerned. Saige may not have made a sound across the last hours, but her emotions were no more settled, they kept creeping her closer to some vile edge she dreaded with all her being.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Talon growled.
“To hold the spell.”
“Ah, so it doesn’t’ matter where the fuck I am, does it?”
The twin cousins shared a glance then walked right past Talon and Skylynn like they were fucking lawn furniture. When they vanished to the other side of the barrier Skylynn spoke. “It matters where you are, and it matters what you do where you are.”
Talon smirked. “Me marching inside and helping your mother balance out isn’t going to undo shit.”
“Staying away from her only makes you weaker.”
Talon swayed his head as irony waved its hairy ass in his face. He’d always known he was weaker when Saige was far from him, but Saige always had an e
xcuse, and now the excuse was pushing him right at her.
“I need you to be real with me right now,” Talon said. “What are we waiting on here?”
Skylynn stepped forward, “Raw truths, tragic resolutions, blessed unions.”
Talon cursed as he stepped passed her to make his way in. “I’ve had about all the truth I can handle, overdue for resolutions and unions.”
When he looked back, the last part of Skylynn was vanishing to the other side of the barrier. He opened his mouth to say something, what it was fell flat. There was something about her that twisted him in all the wrong ways, more than her near mirror appearance to Reveca and Saige. Whatever it was, Talon didn’t have the brainpower to understand what he was feeling right then.
As slow and quiet as a predator he moved through the house. He didn’t need to hunt to know where Saige was, he’d always been able to tell any soul exactly where she was on the planet at any given moment. He stopped just outside her door and willed his vim forward to push it further ajar. The room was pitch dark, but for him, it wasn’t hard to see she wasn’t in there. He stepped forward knowing his senses were not lying to him, there was a door deep in the room on the left wall, a soft glow of light was coming from behind it. He smelled rosemary, lavender, and jasmine simmering in the steam filled air. She was losing herself in the sensations of her church, mother earth, and all its healing gifts.
Talon furrowed his brow in disdain. Even though he came from a generation that had no choice but to find natural medicine, he still wasn’t fond of the oils and herbs Saige reached for. To him, it was magic, an unexplained natural power that could change his perception at any given moment.
With a sullen grunt, he moved on looking for quarters he could call his own. He didn’t need any flower mojo to make him feel better. He was just fine swimming in his justified dark emotions, but he did want to be free of the constant reminder of his last war, the one he lost.
It didn’t take him long to find Scorpio’s room, after snagging a new set of clothes Talon moved on searching for a room with little reminders of what he was in the middle of. When he finally found a room in the east wing, he shed everything he was wearing, right down to his boots and stuffed them into the fireplace. Moments later, after his stare flicked the perfect spark to the nest he had made, the fire erupted into life.
Talon stood nude before the heat of it watching the ashes float up and out into the nothing. His deep thoughts questioned what was in the nothing. What beasts were waiting where there was nothing left...did peace exist anywhere? Not likely for a soul like him. His toned body flexed as his mind relived the fight once more, there wasn’t a single blow he thought he could’ve made differently. Those men would’ve fallen if there were more than vapor or essence that they were.
Their faces and stories swirled in his mind as he stared into the fading gray stare of Reveca’s. It hurt so bad just then, all of it, that he yearned for a different past, a tiny choice here or there and his path would’ve never crossed the Dominarum coven, he would have never hurt so many, never felt this broken.
The smoldering fire was near ashes when he felt the sweat on his body liquefying the dried blood once more. In a beat his vim moved him to the shower, he didn’t care how cold it was when he turned it on, he needed to be clean, had to be. He scrubbed and scrubbed, but the blood never left him. He could smell it, feel it...
In desperation, he turned the water to smoldering, then braced his arms on the shower as he bowed his head and forced himself to think of nothing, to breathe in then out. Somewhere during his long stance, aromas he thought he was sensing from another part of the home, became richer. He felt his shoulders lose some of their tension; the mellow of his mind take root. His breaths were deeper and more deliberate.
With a weak growl, he flung the steam latent shower door open as his fist slammed the water off. There she was, calm as ever sitting on the vanity, braless in a tank that was a bit too big for her fine lean body. Her hair was down and slowly drying in golden locks. Not a single touch of makeup was on her face, not that she needed it. Even with the swollen puffs around the edges of her eyes and the nipped corner of her lip that she had bit down on in the fury of her emotions, Saige had never been more alluring—a beautiful, complicated creature who had brought him to his knees once more.
Her stare had been downcast, but slowly began to rise when she heard his brutish exit from the shower, no matter what state of mind he was in there was no stopping the cubby that was all for flaming into a full-grown erection when her eyes landed on his waist. He jerked a towel from the rack and wrapped it around himself pinning the unneeded distraction to his stomach.
Saige’s slow evaluation of him hadn’t halted. She eyed his navel that reminded her of a half-smile, the line of dark coarse hair that lead beneath his towel. She watched as his short angry breaths caused the ridges in his stomach to move out in just enough for drops of water to glisten as they fell. She stared at where his heart was the longest, settled between the hard pecs of his chest she could hear the fast rhythm sense the vibrant life there, a call for her to rise and live, a call she had felt since her first breath.
A prince she was driven to find...at any cost.
When Saige’s daughter was born hungry to find her soul mate, starved for the magic that would send her well on her way, Saige knew her pain. Saige knew how deep the burn flamed. How wicked frustration could be, how it would make anyone’s willfulness ironclad.
Saige was honest with her daughter, a gift she was not afforded. She told her there was nothing she could do to bend the time and bring her comfort to her sooner; she’d have to wait. It was the time that shaped the soul. Saige knew only part of her was Skylynn, that her father was a bigger part of her, his essence was. An essence that told her never to accept defeat To take challenges as a turn in the war, but not the final call in the epic war of life.
Saige wanted her daughter to live and grow for as long as she could with the blind hope of childhood, to not strap on the burdens of a long life before she absolutely had to. Just as hungry as her mother, Skylynn toyed with the wrong power seeking answers that were better left for another day, and found herself set aside until the dawn of the Rapture.
It was different for Saige. She was told of her woes, they were told to her in quiet whispers, quiet enough that the Gods dare not hear them, as her mother would say. Her family spoke of all she would endure as if it were to occur the next season. Be well with your soul for tomorrows are born in what you do today, her mother would say.
Dutiful as ever, Saige made strides to be as strong as she could be, all the while casting her stare to the end she yearned for, an end when the pain would be over, secrets would be told, forgiveness given and bliss was in abundance.
What a joke... Saige thought to herself as her breath hitched, not from the sight of the brilliantly sculpted male before her, but from the pain, she felt deep inside. Push, and then a pull—her sister was fighting her judgment. It didn’t surprise Saige that she was. If anything, she expected Reveca to be more violent about it. It was the unknown that was ripping Saige apart.
What now...
“I’m not ready for this,” Talon said crisply. He made no move to dry off or walk passed her. Instead, he stood in the deep shower staring out at her, a predator with nowhere to run.
Some lovers scream at each other when they hit an impasse, others...the ones who feel deeply and richly fight without words. Their silence and space is the only resolution they can grip until the emotions have time to settle, until reason and understanding are given to each of them.
Souls like Talon and Saige needed more than few days of the silent treatment, in most cases, it was far longer. So long the battle between them became nothing more than a thread woven into the tapestry of the clandestine love affair they had shared.
“You think I am?” she asked finally letting the light orbs of her eyes hit his. “Before you vanish you could at least see me through to the end.”
/> “Woman are you mad? See you through? It’s over.”
Watching his words slap her, the eruption of her sorrow had him fisting his hands, his harsh thoughts telling him to stay his course, to hold on to the anger. He was no fool. He knew the second he wasn’t furious real pain would hit him. A misery he’d rather not court.
“It’s not.”
Talon closely studied her, inside and out. He sensed what she did, the denial Reveca’s soul was in. “Our part is,” he said finally. “I don’t appreciate your daughter threatening me, thinking she has the right to tell me where to stay and what is for my own good. Suppose she gets that nonsense from her aristocrat father.
Saige dropped her head. “Far from an aristocrat...thank the Creator for such.”
The growl that came from Talon’s chest was impossible for him to stop. He had dropped insult after insult about the one male who had held her and not once had Saige entertained his taunts, tonight she does. When he was in shreds, she chose to break him further. He should have been surprised, but he wasn’t. “Why don’t you use that sweet ass of yours and hail him, have him float down from whatever cloud he is dangling on and come down here and make all this right again.”
A single tear dripped from Saige’s eye.
Talon waited for her to defend him, to tell Talon he was too simple to understand how complicated all this was. He waited until he could not stand it any longer.
“Tell me why,” his tone was still sharp, but had lost its thunder.
In a languid manner, she lifted her eyes silently questioning what answer he was after.
“Same question, the same one that has hung in the back of my throat and sliced my heart open every single time I tried to do it your way... Why did you send me to her? Why did you put so much life between us.”
Saige kept her silence, but her emotions revealed far more than they ever had. The pain, the sickness, and wretched jealousy she had lived with swelled so rapidly that Talon swayed back.
